Joseph Curtin is a violin-maker, researcher, writer, and 2005 MacArthur Fellow. Born in Toronto, Canada , he started violin lessons at twelve, went on to study music and philosophy at the University of Toronto, and then studied viola with the Israeli soloist Rivka Golani. In 1977, Curtin took up violin-making under the guidance of Otto Erdesz. He subsequently worked as a maker in Toronto, Paris, and Cremona before establishing the firm of Curtin & Alf in Ann Arbor, Michigan, in 1985. Twelve years later, he opened his own studios. 

Curtin has built violins for some of the most distinguished artists of our time, including Erick Friedman, Ilya Kaler, Cho-Liang Lin, Elmar Oliveira, Yehudi Menuhin, and Ruggiero Ricci. In 2013, the “ex-Ricci” Curtin & Alf violin sold in auction for $132,000, a world record price for work by living makers.

Curtin codirects the VSA-Oberlin Acoustics Workshop with Fan-Chia Tao. His work with Claudia Fritz and Fan Tao has led to three papers on blind-testing violins published in the Periodical of the National Academy of Sciences. Curtin is a frequent contributor to The Strad and Strings magazines. He has lectured internationally on the art and science of violin-making, including physics colloquia at Stanford, Princeton, and Cornell Universities, and at the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics.

Curtin lives with his wife, composer/sculptor Jesse Richards, on the Huron just outside Ann Arbor, Michigan.